When it comes to innovations in the Sport of Kings, let nobody say that Gulfstream Park's management doesn't stand at the top of the list. The track that is giving us the $16 million Pegasus World Cup, the Rainbow Pick 6 and much more, has now come up with six 2-year-old stakes worth $75,000 each, plus $600,000 worth of races for horses "bred in a Representative Country of the Confederacion Hipica Del Caribe." The whole shebang tomorrow is called the Clasico Internacional del Caribe. 

    Topped off by the $300,000 Caribbean Classic Stakes at 1 1/8 miles, which drew a field of 12 3-year-olds, the countries represented are Panama, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Mexico and Ecuador. At 7/2 in the morning line is Justiciero, a Kentucky-bred who has won eight of 13 starts, including the Puerto Rico Triple Crown. 

    Two of the 2-year-old races preceding the Caribbean will be run at six furlongs, two at one mile, and two on the grass. There are 14 Florida-breds entered in the six, but only 10 are by current or recent past Florida stallions. 

    In the Hut Hut Stakes for fillies are Mariealena, by Ocala Stud's High Cotton, who will no longer be breeding, and Weekend Mischief, by Into Mischief. 

    The Wait a While, also for fillies, includes Unstablenthemornin, by Double Diamond's First Dude, Florida's leading active sire, and Homemade Salsa, Get Away Farm's daughter of Two Step Salsa who won the Juvenile Fillies Turf at Gulfstream West and is 2-1-0 in three starts. Two Step Salsa has surpassed all of his personal records this year for earnings, winners and 2-year-old winners, and is headed toward $1.9 million in progeny earnings. Also entered is Gift of Glory, by Lookin At Lucky.

    The Buffalo Man Stakes features Silent Tiger, by Hartley/DeRenzo's With Distinction, who has been in the top two or three on the Florida lists for five or six years. 

    The House Party Stakes for fillies has four Florida-breds - Lil B. Quick, by former Winding Oaks sire Graeme Hall; Frau Riley, one of the winners in the first crop of Brethren, who moves from Pleasant Acres to Arindel Farm for the new breeding season; Florida Fuego, by former Ocala Stud stalwart Kantharos, and Writer's Almanac, by Mineshaft. 

    Tip Sheet, a two-time winner by Brethren and second behind Soutache in the $400,000 In Reality Stakes, will contest the Smooth Air Stakes, along with Winking at Thedude, a son of First Dude.

   The Pulpit Stakes will include Seattle Treasure, one of 11 winners by Pleasant Acres' freshman Treasure Beach, and Nauti Boy, by Mizzen Mast. Seattle Treasure finished third in the Juvenile Turf Stakes at Gulfstream West. 

    The handle will be in the blockbuster range again for Gulfstream, and the races should provide some legitimate contenders for the upcoming 3-year-old races in Florida. 

        

    

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